All ninth-graders at DA are required to complete Information Literacy as part of their freshman year Physical Education,­ Self and Community, Information Literacy,­ Technology Education rotation. However, if you complete it over the summer, you will have one additional free period during the rotation. This class will introduce you to the print and online resources you'll find at Durham Academy, cover the research process and advanced searching strategies, show you how to find and evaluate information you need, and more. Not only is this class designed to help you with your research projects throughout your career at Durham Academy but with everyday research and projects outside of and beyond high school as well!

The Amazing Race Camp is an adventure challenge course designed and run especially for kids involving a range of obstacles and challenges in an outdoor environment. This camp offers kids the opportunity to experience the thrill of adventure racing, emphasizing teamwork, problem-solving, sportsmanship, environmental awareness and fun. Campers cross the finish line muddy, wet, smiling and full of pride. The race will be run in a partner format.

Participants can sign up individually or with a partner. If a child signs up individually, they will be paired with another camper and will run as a team.

The course is approximately 3 miles long. This will take approximately 40 to 60 minutes to finish. Teams will be timed.

In the days leading up to the race, our experienced staff will help the kids build their confidence and their teamwork by practicing the many challenges that they will face on race day. We keep it fun, friendly, and positive!

Please email Heidi Kearnan with any questions you may have about the details of this camp at Heidi.Kearnan@da.org

Our shooting camp is a one-of-a-kind experience that will not only provide a greater understanding of shooting technique, but will also improve shooting accuracy — regardless of the shooter’s age or skill level. This camp has a more narrow focus than a traditional skills camp, specifically teaching the art of shooting.

Campers will learn the proper footwork, balance, alignment, hand placement and drills needed to reach maximum shooting potential. Shooting off-the-catch, off-the-dribble, on-the-move and the unique skill of free-throw shooting, will all be drilled. Campers will be organized by age and, each day, will participate in a variety of work in stations, shooting games and contests that will focus on specific areas of shooting technique. The camp will do all of this while providing a positive, upbeat experience that promotes hard work, enthusiasm and fun.

A graduate of West Point, Chris Spatola is sixth on the school’s all-time scoring list and is the school’s all-time leader in free-throw percentage. In addition to his playing career, Chris spent six seasons as a member of Mike Krzyzewski’s coaching staff at Duke, is currently a college basketball analyst for ESPN, a radio personality for Sirius/XM and has over 10 years of experience running basketball camps.

At Mr. Stafford’s Culinary Academy, young chefs can expand their local culinary knowledge to create a more community, regional, and global experience. Culinary instruction will be provided for the curious cook’s mind. Students will also expand their palate and reinforce academic and social skills. At the Culinary Academy, young chefs will learn about food safety and knife skills while experimenting with new flavors and ingredients. Mr. Stafford has over 25 years of experience as a chef, food lover, and instructor — expanding the young mind and creating the next generation of food lovers and culinary innovators!

Please email Terry Stafford with any questions you may have about the details of this camp at teleluvr1@me.com.

Use your skills as a chemist to make your own radical reactions with batteries, coins, and more! Compare fingerprints and discover the mysteries of DNA as you fine-tune your secret agent skills. Make "brain goo" and check out your bones as your travel the organ trail. Explore the inside of your body and learn about the organ systems and the cells that compose them. Get an introduction to the circulatory, respiratory, digestive, skeletal, and muscular systems. Discover cool chemical reactions, and how to solve a crime in this hands-on, summer, science adventure!

These are only a sample of some of the activities that we will be doing each day. The topics will not necessarily follow this order. However, each of these topics will be included at some point in the camp.

Cell City - Take a fantastic trip into cell city. Learn about cells and the different parts within them. You will compare the parts of a cell to a real city as you investigate its different functions. Build your own take home model cell out of unique materials. Even your snack will be a fun cell model you can eat!

The Organ Trail - Do you know the recipe for a healthy body? You will after you journey down the Mad Science Organ Trail. Come to camp and meet "Tall Paul"! Paul is a torso model that can have his organs removed and replaced. Paul’s brain, bones, lungs, heart, and digestion system will all be investigated. Make a gutsy apron and a model lung to take home.

Chemical Counting - Get ready for a day in the Mad Science Laboratory! Turn a lemon into a battery. Experiment with electrochemical reactions, as you electroplate a penny and a nickel. Learn how chemical elements help you to create chemical compounds. Put your new chemistry know-how to work as you make your own brain goo!

Radical Reactions - Ready, set, reactions! Learn with hands-on reactions that matter is never created or destroyed. Make a rainbow and a chemical clock in a cup. Experiment with chemical bonds and whirligigs as you discover conductivity. Make your own invisible ink.

At the Scene of the Crime - Team up with fellow campers to solve the “Great Cookie Caper” crime. Arrive at camp to find a real crime scene surrounded by crime scene tape. Walk the grid and collect evidence to solve the crime. All of your observation skills will be needed as you use your new magnifying glasses and notebooks to record your evidence. Use your forensic skills to solve the crime and make your own cookie snack.

Please email Mad Science with any questions you may have about the details of this camp at info@madsciencekidz.com.

KNOW: We will develop a knowledge base of important information. The learning of basic information is required by everyone, after that its mostly interest driven. I create an environment where the basics are presented and those with more interest in this type of development can go as far as they like. The more knowledge you have, the more actual playing becomes easier.

DO: In the end it’s more important what you do than what you know. The doing aspect comes more naturally for children (the knowing part more to adult learners) so we tend to mostly focus on doing. The "doing" comprises lots of tactics, learning how to assess positions, learning how to make plans linked to those assessments and training our minds to think sequentially and efficiently.

DA chess coach Craig Jones has won hundreds of chess tournaments. He is a former U.S. Correspondence Champion (10th-2000) and reached the world championship semi-finals. Jones is a many-time winner of the N.C. State Invitational and former U.S. Masters Champion. His students include national individual scholastic champions (more than a dozen!), and many state champions, national team champions and state team champions. Durham Academy is a perennial winner of the North Carolina State Championships in one of the three elementary divisions.

Please email Craig Jones with any questions you may have about the details of this camp at craig.jones43@gmail.com.

Spend a week in this awesome, free-flowing camp playing in the Extended Day room, Lower School gym, playground and all around campus! We will play with all the cool stuff in the Extended Day room, do a variety of crafts, play outside, visit other camps on campus, have a Thursday movie party and finish our week with some water play outside (weather permitting)! Join us and experience this relaxing combination of play, learning and summer camp fun!

Please email DA Summer Programs with any questions you may have about the details of this camp at summer@da.org.

Discover firsthand the exciting world of electrical engineering! In this class, we’ll experiment with static electricity, create electromagnets, and build our own batteries. We’ll make a homemade light bulb and explore insulators and conductors. We’ll learn how electric motors work and design circuits. Plus, you’ll get to keep some of your projects so the fun continues at home. If you like activities that light up and buzz, this class is for you!

Camp participants study the one-of-a-kind, expertly designed, kid-specific Mighty Dragons Martial Arts curriculum, which focuses on developing the physical skills of staying balanced, delivering power, and whole body coordination. These attributes will serve your children well no matter where their life takes them. More importantly than the physical, Quest Center Instructors help your children learn communication skills, boundary setting and respecting, proper assertiveness, and conflict resolution skills. They practice dealing with conflict. What better way to help your child deal with bullying issues than to give them opportunities to practice? The best part of all is that they have a blast doing it! Every day at camp is an adventure.

Please email Hardee Merritt with any questions you may have about the details of this camp at info@ncquestcenter.com.

O'hoy maties! Come join us for a week of pirate fun! Learn how to be a pirate, fly the Jolly Roger, and search for treasure! We will play Pirate games, read Pirate books, sing pirate songs, make pirate crafts and find pirate treasure.

Jessica Soler has been an elementary school teacher for over 20 years, and has taught in both public and private schools in North Carolina and in Puerto Rico. Jessica has been teaching a summer Language Arts Academic Camp at Durham Academy for many years, and has taught summer school language arts and done private reading tutoring in both Wake County Public Schools and in Puerto Rico.

Please email Jessica Soler with any questions you may have about the details of this camp at jessica.soler@da.org.

The Play 2 Learn 2 Code camp will use CodeMonkey which is a web-based site that allows campers to develop the foundational skills of programming in a real programming language. From the very first moment in CodeMonkey, campers start to write code in a real-world programming language called CoffeeScript. CoffeeScript is a modern open-source programming language that compiles to JavaScript, and similarly to JavaScript it is used in the industry primarily for web applications. Through the CodeMonkey program campers will learn advanced Computer Science concepts such as loops, variables, functions, conditions and more. (Some information from CodeMonkey.com)

Love stories? Love art? Love using your imagination to share stories with others? Then this camp is for you! We’ll start each day with a different story, jump-starting our imaginations with ideas from different authors and illustrators. What are some of our favorite stories and characters? How can we bring them to life? Using a variety of materials, every day we’ll make our own puppets and props. Together we’ll build our own puppet theaters. At the end of the week, campers will have everything they need to put on their own puppet shows at home!

This RDUTennis outdoor tennis camp is appropriate for everyone from the novice to the intermediate junior tennis player. Trained instructors will provide coaching tips and create fun games to create a very exciting camp experience. All strokes of the game, along with the rules, tennis etiquette, and the value of sportsmanship, will be covered by RDUTennis coaches during the week of outdoor tennis camp. Our mission is to ensure each camper has the ability to compete in a tennis match using short or regulation size court by week's end.

Please email Brian Rosenthal with any questions you may have about the details of this camp at rdutennis@gmail.com.

Are regular school clothes too plain for your taste? Do you pirouette when you walk down the hall? Are words like “delectable” and “enchanté” a part of your everyday vocabulary? Then Fancy Nancy Camp is the place for you! Come join us as we explore the Fancy Nancy series by author Jane O’Connor. In addition to reading, writing, and creating our own fancy stories, we’ll ornament, embellish and bedazzle as we prepare for our culminating event, a Fancy Nancy-style tea party. It will be the event of the summer! Don’t forget your feather boa!

Please email Elizabeth Allan with any questions you may have about the details of this camp at elizabeth.allan@da.org.

Dive into the pool, where we will have the opportunity to learn valuable swimming skills taught by YMCA instructors! We will also spend supervised time playing together in the water. Snacks, transportation, pool fees and lesson fees are included. Come and experience this relaxing combination of learning and summer camp fun!

Please email Fara Soheili with any questions you may have about the details of this camp at fsoheili@gmail.com.

Watch as your rockets blast off hundreds of feet into the air! Learn the fundamentals of aerospace engineering and use your newfound knowledge to design, build, and launch your own water bottle and model rockets. However, the real challenge comes when you design and construct your own balsa wood gliders from scratch – just like the Aerospace students at N.C. State University. By the end of the week, you’ll feel like a real rocket scientist with creations of your very own to take home.

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a ... Frisbee! Ultimate Frisbee is one of the fastest growing youth sports in the U.S., and we want to teach you how to play! Ultimate combines the continuous play of soccer, the end zones of football, and the pivoting of basketball all with a Frisbee to create a fast-paced, exciting game! This camp will teach the fundamentals of the sport, going over different types of throws and the basic strategies of offense and defense. Participants will learn about Spirit of the Game, a fundamental part of Ultimate that focuses on sportsmanship and respect for all players. There will be fun-filled skills, drills, and lots of scrimmaging going on at camp. The camp will be led by some of the top leaders in the Triangle's Ultimate Frisbee community! Each camper will receive a disc and DA camp shirt with registration!

Afternoon Camps

Calling all actors! Working together as an ensemble, we will create an original play or musical based on the ideas and interests of the participants. In Actor’s Workshop, we will learn key elements of theatre performance and will become immersed in all aspects of theatre-making. Participants will learn about acting, stage presence, stage crew, props, directing and costume design. Every participant will contribute their unique skills and interests to create our final performance, which will be shared at the end of the week!

This camp is led by Ellen Brown, who has extensive experience in directing young people and performing herself, having worked professionally in New York City for over 10 years as an actor and director before moving to Durham to serve as Durham Academy's Middle School drama teacher.

Please email Ellen Brown with any questions you may have about the details of this camp at ellen.brown@da.org.

Learn how to program a robot to follow a track all by itself! While the original Line-Following Robot class is strictly about hardware design, the addition of the Arduino microprocessor introduces new challenges and allows for all kinds of enhancements from advanced speed controls to turn memory. This class is great for both programming beginners and Arduino enthusiasts and no previous Line-Following Robot experience is necessary. Robot built during class sold separately.

Laptops will be available to borrow during class, however, we highly recommend students bring their own laptop from home with the free Arduino software already installed (see www.techsplorers.com/arduino for setup instructions).

Calling all artists! This camp is for anyone who loves to make their mark with paint, pencils, paper, and more. Every day we’ll tackle a different project and try different techniques. Using high-quality paints and supplies, we’ll experiment with light and color and develop our understanding of the special ways artists see the world. Using our powers of observation, our imaginations, and our hands, we’ll create so much “fridge-worthy” art that the walls of your kitchen will be covered. At the end of the week, each artist will take home a mini-portfolio of work to share with family and friends.

Art coupled with mathematical concepts will be our focus this week. Campers will develop mathematical concepts through creative and fun art projects. Math topics may include operations, fractions, symmetry, fractal geometry, optical illusions, parabolic curves, or tessellations. Video clips will be shown to demonstrate and support project directions. Bring your creativity and be ready to be inspired!

Each week of camp will have different projects so feel free to sign up for both!

Our shooting camp is a one-of-a-kind experience that will not only provide a greater understanding of shooting technique, but will also improve shooting accuracy — regardless of the shooter’s age or skill level. This camp has a more narrow focus than a traditional skills camp, specifically teaching the art of shooting.

Campers will learn the proper footwork, balance, alignment, hand placement and drills needed to reach maximum shooting potential. Shooting off-the-catch, off-the-dribble, on-the-move and the unique skill of free-throw shooting, will all be drilled. Campers will be organized by age and, each day, will participate in a variety of work in stations, shooting games and contests that will focus on specific areas of shooting technique. The camp will do all of this while providing a positive, upbeat experience that promotes hard work, enthusiasm and fun.

A graduate of West Point, Chris Spatola is sixth on the school’s all-time scoring list and is the school’s all-time leader in free-throw percentage. In addition to his playing career, Chris spent six seasons as a member of Mike Krzyzewski’s coaching staff at Duke, is currently a college basketball analyst for ESPN, a radio personality for Sirius/XM and has over 10 years of experience running basketball camps.

KNOW: We will develop a knowledge base of important information. The learning of basic information is required by everyone, after that its mostly interest driven. I create an environment where the basics are presented and those with more interest in this type of development can go as far as they like. The more knowledge you have, the more actual playing becomes easier.

DO: In the end it’s more important what you do than what you know. The doing aspect comes more naturally for children (the knowing part more to adult learners) so we tend to mostly focus on doing. The "doing" comprises lots of tactics, learning how to assess positions, learning how to make plans linked to those assessments and training our minds to think sequentially and efficiently.

DA chess coach Craig Jones has won hundreds of chess tournaments. He is a former U.S. Correspondence Champion (10th-2000) and reached the world championship semi-finals. Jones is a many-time winner of the N.C. State Invitational and former U.S. Masters Champion. His students include national individual scholastic champions (more than a dozen!), and many state champions, national team champions and state team champions. Durham Academy is a perennial winner of the North Carolina State Championships in one of the three elementary divisions.

Please email Craig Jones with any questions you may have about the details of this camp at craig.jones43@gmail.com.

Digital Media and Filmmakingis a fun media-arts camp for first- to eighth-grade students focused on making movies. Campers will work with scripting, shooting, animating, special effects, and editing to create their own short films. Cameras and other production equipment will be provided, but campers are also welcome to bring their own to use. This camp will be process-based for the experience, as well as for the creation of individual short films. We will have a screening at the end of the week with files to be shared in an archive upon completion of the camp. We will film the camp experience as we learn to document and make-up narrative stories which will be edited together into final film projects. Students will work on individual films and group projects throughout the week!

Andrea DeGette is a videography teacher at Cedar Ridge High School, and operates Media Arts Exchange from her studio in downtown Hillsborough. She has been teaching filmmaking for many years and is passionate about helping students move from being passive consumers to active producers of digital media!

Discover firsthand the exciting world of civil engineering! In this camp, we’ll design and construct towers, bridges and cantilevers. We’ll explore the forces of tension, compression, torsion, bendin, and shear. We’ll learn which shapes are the strongest and how to survive an earthquake. Plus, you’ll get to keep some of your projects so the fun continues at home. If you like to build, this class is for you!

In this camp, participants will have fun with French and all things French! Constanza de Radcliffe has taught French at DA Upper School for eight years, and has experience teaching at all levels, including little people who are 4 to 10 years old, like her own children.

Let’s play hidden word and learn our first French words and expressions, learn some simple French songs, make arts and crafts as we get to tour Paris and learn about the main monuments, eat crêpes and baguettes, make puppet shows and play outside with French themes! The earliest a child tries on a foreign language’s new sounds, the better they will be at it in the years to come. This camp offers a way to plant a French seed by doing a lot of fun activities.

An entire week of beginning Irish dancing and culture through story! What happens when you catch a leprechaun? Where do the fairies really live? Is it true that if you find a selkie's skin, she has to stay on land forever? Combining basic Irish dancing, theater, and the fantastic world of Irish storytelling, this unusual camp will not only introduce campers to Irish dance and music, but will bring a specifically Irish story to life, piece by piece. Known in Irish dancing circles as a "Dance Drama," our camp will culminate in a costumed pantomime play for family, siblings and friends at the end of the week.

Please email Meighan Carpenter with any questions you may have about the details of this camp at meighan@iniscairde.com.

In Mrs. Fara's Fun Time Camp, campers will spend the week playing games, doing arts and crafts, playing outdoors and having fun! We will get a chance to spend our afternoons doing what we love in this play-based, kid-directed camp. Campers will take a field trip one day to the Mardi Gras Bowling Center and Morehead Planetarium on DA’s minibus! Campers will end the week with a fun, appropriate PG-rated movie.

Please email Fara Soheili with any questions you may have about the details of this camp at fsoheili@gmail.com.

Camp participants study a one-of-a-kind, expertly designed, youth-specific To-Shin Do Ninjutsu curriculum, which focuses on developing the physical skills of staying balanced, delivering power, and whole body coordination. These attributes will serve your children well no matter where their life takes them. More importantly than the physical, Quest Center instructors help your children learn communication skills, boundary setting and respecting, proper assertiveness, and conflict resolution skills. They practice dealing with conflict. What better way to help your child deal with bullying issues than to give them opportunities to practice? The best part of all is that they have a blast doing it! Every day at camp is an adventure.

Please email Hardee Merritt with any questions you may have about the details of this camp at info@ncquestcenter.com.

En Garde! Learn the Olympic sport of fencing in a fun, fast-paced, and exciting environment. Campers will learn the basics by utilizing a wide array of games and activities designed to teach coordination, sportsmanship, and basic fencing skills. All equipment is provided, and safety is emphasized.

Participants should wear comfortable athletic clothing and toe-covered shoes. The lead instructor, Jennifer Oldham, is owner and head coach of the Mid-South Fencers’ Club. Over the last eight years, she has trained fencers from beginner to collegiate, national, and international competitive level, right here in Durham!

This camp puts children on a “deserted island” on which they must work together to devise a means for collecting food and water, build shelters, bridges, and learn about the science behind survival fun! They use the tools at hand to write messages to send in a bottle and witness a volcanic eruption. The children eventually design a means to escape the island and come home.

These are only a sample of some of the activities that we will be doing each day. The topics will not necessarily follow this order. However, each of these topics will be included at some point in the camp.

Shipwrecked – Imagine finding yourself on a deserted island with only a few supplies. What better way to inspire your own creations? Add into the day a tsunami and see how resourceful you can be using Ben Franklin’s inventions as inspiration.

Rock Paper Scissors – Investigate the awesome innovations created before modern science had really begun. Learn about Leonardo da Vinci and discover how his ideas predicted future inventions that can help us on the island. Build tools to both enjoy and to help with escape, including a harmonica, mystery key, and dragonfly helicopter! Build a bridge to help explore the island, start work on a fort to live in, and create a means of protection for your new camp!

Forts and Flingers – Explore catapults, trebuchets, and more of his amazing inventions during this action-packed camp day. Protect camp while working on your fort and design different flying and flinging devices, including your own flying dragon! Practice your skills of observation.

Race to Space – Why settle for just a message in a bottle? Campers take flight on this exciting day! From hot air balloons to rockets, the adventure starts on the ground and travels into space. Step into space by launching self-built rockets and loading a payload capsule puzzle.

Escape from Shipwreck Island – Witness a volcano erupt and see who will be the captain’s first mate for escape! Build another bridge so you can scout the island for the best place to take off. Campers work on a sail boat as they explore ideas for escaping the island to safety!

CS First is a free program that increases student access and exposure to computer science (CS) education. In this camp you will create your own video games!

Design and program your own video games using code and computer science. In Sports, students use computer science to simulate extreme sports, make their own fitness gadget commercial, and create commentary for a big sporting event.

Imagine, Program and Share are the key elements of what the free Scratch software can allow campers to create. The software is free, the application is logical and campers will be supported in their learning of the programming language by a seasoned crew of instructors. Young people need to be exposed to programming at an early level to learn how the technology behind computers and games actually work, and this is a great camp for that exposure. Come to this camp and “scratch” the programming itch!

Come join us for a week of storybook fun! We will dive into the world of fiction books, reading, acting, making art, and playing games! We will read a variety of fiction books every day, and do fun activities based on the books we read. Reading = Fun!

Jessica Soler has been an elementary school teacher for over 20 years, and has taught in both public and private schools in North Carolina and in Puerto Rico. Jessica has been teaching a summer Language Arts Academic Camp at Durham Academy for many years, and has taught summer school language arts and done private reading tutoring in both Wake County Public Schools and in Puerto Rico.

Please email Jessica Soler with any questions you may have about the details of this camp at jessica.soler@da.org.

We will explore breath and body awareness through movement and stillness. We will experience guided relaxation, establishing a best resting place in each child's mindbody, to revisit anytime anywhere. We will both blend and isolate attentional exercises for the senses. We will study our deep inner space and personal weather systems (aka anatomy). We will contemplate the elements of our environment indoors and out – and how they shape us. We will imagine, draw, and write – creating traces of our discoveries of how our place-in-space, our posture, the floor, the weather, our mood, etc. support our focus …

We will play a wide range of games that help challenge and integrate all of the above mentioned skills while highlighting the mind's role in stabilizing, mobilizing, calming, and energizing the developing heart-brain-body. We will mix in plenty of free play to balance the structured experiments in gravity and levity.

Elliott Turnbull has been teaching yoga asana since 1993, and guiding therapeutic embodiment and mindfulness meditation practices since 1997. Please email Elliott with any questions you may have about the details of this camp at landingbirdyoga@gmail.com